War Paint
by Kakawot
Summary: Using war paint to become scarier was an old Viking tradition, so naturally it extends to their dragons. So how come Toothless remains the only dragon au naturel?


Some colors for the war paint the Vikings used were harder to create – blue was especially tricky. You needed at least a dozen woad plants to create one small container of blue paint. Red was easy. That color ochre could be found on the surrounding islands and was easy to transport and mix into animal fat to create that perfect shade of terrifying red.

Berk wasn't so big that it had a dedicated person working on creating paint during the time the Vikings were at war with the dragons, but when the great beasts settled in over the course of the months the Vikings felt a human need to decorate them. The dragons had won them over, but now the humans wanted to mark them as belonging to their tribe.

War paint was the answer, so one woman took it upon herself to start a business. It became easier to tell two Terrible Terrors apart if one had a yellow ear and the other's was red. The woman gathered enough plants, herbs and clay to create enough paint to dye an entire Monstrous Nightmare. And the people of Berk loved her for it. She rose in esteem and the lines outside her workshop grew by the day.

Astrid was the second-to-last of their generation to use war paint on Stormfly. Ruffnutt and Tufnutt preferred to use it on themselves. It made it a little easier to tell them apart, too. From a distance. If you wanted to know who you aimed for.

Fishlegs once used the cheapest form of black ash paint to draw the skeleton of his Gronckle onto its hide. The little Gronckle loved the scritches of the brush on his skin and kept rolling around, ruining the wet paint and smudging the drawing.

Snotlout gave his Monstrous Nightmare a look so fierce it made babies cry. Literally. The village elder made him wipe it off and create something a little less scary for the wee ones. Grudgingly he obliged and the final result was something which made people think twice about crossing him or making fun of him. Or so he thought. In Hiccup's opinion the dragon now looked like something a child might draw when asked about his nightmare – rough and ludicrous, with plenty of black thrown in.

Hiccup didn't pay much attention as Astrid drew small circles on her canvas, aka Stormfly's right wing. The dragon watched on in interest as its hide turned into a painting. Hiccup was busy drawing the outline of the island he'd found today on his map and tuned his girlfriend out as she talked to Stormfly about the war paint.

"And another lick here, see, this finishes up that circle. Fits right there, doesn't it, Stormfly?"

The dragon crooned its agreement and rustled its wing. Astrid looked up at Stormfly, a bit annoyed.

"Now you smudged it. You've got to wait until this is dry before you fold your wing back up, alright? If you wait for a bit I've got this tasty fish for you..."

That, the Nadder had ears for, so it kept its wing stretched out. Astrid turned around and beamed at Hiccup. Who currently concentrated hard on a rocky part of the coastline. He wanted to get every squiggle right. Who knew when a boat would have to rely on his maps in thick fog. If it wasn't precise, they could hit rock and sink. Viking boats were pretty sturdy, as were the people, but even they sometimes succumbed to the unforgiving rock and ocean. So he had to make sure he got every little bit just-

"What do you think?" Astrid asked, popping up behind him and making him lose his focus. His hand didn't jerk, but his concentration was broken and he knew he'd never get the coastline right again. Oh well, another reason to fly back there and soak up some more sunlight.

"Think of what?" he asked, swiveling around on his stool. He stopped when he saw the decorated Nadder, its wing still outstretched, lying on the stone at the hearth. It looked like... like a toddler had gotten hold of a round stamp and went to town on the dragon. There was a pattern to the circles, but it took Hiccup a while to find it. Astrid beamed at him nonetheless, so he gave her a smile.

"It certainly sets Stormfly apart," he said. Astrid, being Astrid, picked up on the veiled meaning behind the not unkind phrase.

"Well, you do any better, then," she challenged. She looked around the house. "Where _is_ Toothless anyway?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Out. He should be back soon, it's almost time to throw some fishes into that hungry mouth. I swear he's hitting a growth spurt or something."

"Isn't he an adult?" Astrid asked. Hiccup walked up to Stormfly and scratched the dragon under its chin. Stormfly rumbled in contentment and folded its wing back up. Astrid gave the Nadder a fish for being a good girl. The dragon still didn't look too happy, though.

"I thought so too," Hiccup said, "but I think he's gotten a little bigger since, you know, I shot him down in the forest and decided to ride him. Or rather, he took me for a ride."

"But what don't you like about my design?" Astrid asked. "Is it the colors? The shapes? The placement of the-"

Hiccup backed away from the dragon and the girl, waving his hands about. "No no no no, I never said I didn't _like_ it. It's just rather..."

"Yes?" Astrid prompted when Hiccup trailed off. The young man gestured towards the Nadder for a few seconds, looked away and finally answered her.

"Busy. There's too much going on. I like the colors and the shapes and that you want them on the wings, that's all fine. But less is more, right?"

Astrid looked at her dragon, squinted, took a step back and saw what he talked about. "It is rather colorful. And Stormfly, you're pretty colorful yourself already, aren't you?"

The dragon reacted to the encouraging voice and warbled a happy tone. Astrid walked over to the nearest bucket of water strategically placed all over the house in case of a fire. As she began scrubbing the dried paint off Stormfly she jerked her head towards Hiccup's desk.

"So, _are_ you going to do better?" she challenged. Hiccup blinked at her once, but then got what she referred to. He sat down on his stool, folded his map up and grabbed some new parchment from his ample supply.

He sketched Toothless' form out quickly but with high accuracy. He'd studied the dragon over and over, after all, modifying the saddle and gear. He drew Toothless top-down with outstretched wings, but also an en-profile of the Nightfury's head. Since the fin he'd created was red, he grabbed his red wax crayon. And then halted.

There was a world of difference between technical drawings and artistic drawings. He had the technical side down pat – his hand was sure, his movements precise. He used a mental ruler to measure the kinds of saddles he now designed, he could draw how gears should interlock to get the desired results and had memorized what symbols other technical drawings used to depict iron, copper and leather without having to write it out every time. He had added some symbols of his own – Zippleback gas, a new kind of plant he'd discovered out on an island which had stringy leaves. But he rarely drew the way Astrid sometimes did. She could look at her dragon and decide what kinds of colors and shapes complimented her. Hiccup looked at a dragon and saw an already perfect creature. It just needed a better-fitting saddle to make it and its rider happier, so he provided it.

Hiccup put the tip down on the paper and mentally projected a circle on Toothless' wings. No, not a circle. Squares. Triangles. Something to confuse the person chasing him. Would spirals work? How could he use shapes to change Toothless' form into something which would be hard to spot at a distance? Speed was the Nightfury's specialty – when he reached top speed few dragons could keep up with him. So it was advantageous for Toothless to be less visible from the side.

He put the wax crayon down and grabbed his trusty charcoal pencil. He sketched up a view of Toothless' side and covered it with spirals. No, that would make him stand out. Maybe crosshatches? Hiccup tried several designs, erasing and sketching over and over again.

"I don't think that's a good look for Toothless," Astrid interrupted. Stormfly once again wore her natural colors and had settled down, clean and content. Astrid herself had a smudge of yellow paint on her cheek that Hiccup was not going to tell her about, because it looked adorable.

"Hm?" he prodded, spreading his sketches out across the desk.

"Are you going to paint over his entire body?" she asked. "I can hardly get Stormfly to sit still for one wing, let alone her entire body! And Toothless is far more restless than she is."

Hiccup looked at the sketch she indicated. He had colored Toothless' body blue, with areas of lighter and darker blue overlaying each other. In the day sky he theorized that they'd be harder to spot than a black speck. At night it was hard to pick out a black dot against a dark sky, but the night sky wasn't truly black – moons and stars and such. With the moonlight reflecting off the sea, dark blue made a better choice for a dragon's camouflage.

"I wasn't really... designing yet," Hiccup confessed. "I got thinking about camouflage paint and it kinda steamrolled."

"I see," Astrid said. There were over a dozen sketches scattered across Hiccup's desk, all of them depicting Toothless, all of them with different shapes and colors. The poor dragon had no idea what it was in for.

"Here, let me help you," she said. She plonked herself down on his lap and many thoughts about camouflage and paint flew out of his mind. She dragged him back to the present when she grabbed the red wax crayon and an unsoiled sketch of Toothless. Hiccup watched over her shoulder as she drew stripes down Toothless' wings, following the bone structure. Two red stripes began at his nose and ran all the way back over his earflaps, his green eyes smack dab in the middle of it. If applied, Toothless would look fierce – more so than usual, at least.

"There," Astrid said. She leaned back and allowed Hiccup full view of her drawing. The en-profile sketch showed off the red stripe, accentuating the jaw and eyes. Because of the gear necessary to operate the fin she had added two thinning lines over Toothless' belly. They started thick at his front paws, traveled upwards across the back of his paws before running from his belly to the tip of his tail, where they vanished into the red fin. If looked at from below it resembled an arrow.

"It looks... fast," Hiccup said. "I like it," he added.

"Glad to hear it," she said.

"Now I just need to get Toothless to sit still for long enough so I can actually apply it," Hiccup said. Despite the girl in his lap his mind turned to what kinds of fish he'd have to bribe the Nightfury with, but Astrid was good at distracting him as she kissed him.

He'd figure out a bribe... tomorrow.

* * *

The red paint came at a cheap price. All Hiccup had to do was readjust the saddle of the woman's Typhoomerang and fix the buckle on three straps, and the woman running the paint shop sent him home with a bucket of red paint. Red was easy to make and Hiccup could have done it himself if he hadn't been impatient.

Toothless had returned somewhere in the night and was now busy eating his breakfast.

"Hey, bud," Hiccup said as he entered his house. Toothless acknowledged him with a flick of his earflap but continued munching on the fish.

"Listen up, I've got a new project." Hiccup put the bucket down and scoured the table for Astrid's drawing. "You know how cool those other dragons look with that war paint? I figured we'd join them and show them how amazing a Nightfury can look. Now, where did I leave my brush..."

As he rummaged through his collection of tools, tossing aside small knives and scrapers and other tools of the trade he was oblivious to the dragon's reaction to his statement.

He only noticed it when Toothless sniffed at the bucket, made a horrible growling noise and knocked the bucket over with his deft paw.

"Toothless!" Hiccup scolded, running over and putting the bucket upright. Toothless kept on growling and stepped away from the spreading liquid. The Nightfury looked a bit scared as well, not just angry. Hiccup slowly stepped towards his best friend and held out his hands to placate him. Toothless backed away until his tail hit the wall.

"Hey, hey, there's nothing to be scared off. It's just paint, not acid or anything that will harm you, I promise."

Hiccup noticed that he wasn't getting through to his dragon, so he switched tactics. "How about we go flying for a while, after you've finished breakfast? I'm not going to do anything with that paint right now – I can't even find the sketch _or_ my brush."

Toothless visibly calmed down and resumed eating breakfast after Hiccup had cleaned up the spilled paint. There was enough left for some stripes down Toothless' wing. Or Hiccup had to go earn some more. Either way, his new project had been rescheduled.

* * *

"See? How cool that one looks?" Hiccup pointed out another dragon. It was decorated with green and yellow stripes and the human rider had matching stripes across her helmet. Toothless once again slapped him with his earflap and Hiccup rubbed his cheek. "Hey!" he began, but halfway through it turned into a "HeeeEEEYYY!" as Toothless dove down, taking his rider with him.

As always Hiccup enjoyed the ride only a Nightfury could give him. The two of them had gotten even better at using the artificial fin and they rolled away from dangerous rock formations, zigzagged between the pillars and emerged over open sea. There were no more dragons for Hiccup to point out, and that had been Toothless' plan all along, the sneaky bastard. Hiccup relented his persuasion for the moment and enjoyed their flight.

When they got back Astrid waited for them at Hiccup's house.

"Didn't have time to paint him yet?" she asked after they'd greeted each other. Hiccup unsaddled Toothless and the Nightfury bounded off towards the dragon house, probably in search of dinner.

"No," Hiccup replied. "It was the weirdest thing. Toothless was … scared of the paint, for some reason. He didn't pull his 'scared of eels' face, but he definitely felt uncomfortable."

Astrid followed him inside the house as he put Toothless' saddle away. "That is weird," she said. "Stormfly _loved_ all the attention. When I put the brush down she was disappointed."

"I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe he didn't feel like someone climbing all over him this morning. Maybe he had an upset stomach or... something."

He tried not to take it as a personal rejection. Toothless had been so accommodating in the past – letting him put on the saddle in the first place, the countless test flights (and errors that came with it). Why the dragon would raise his hackles at some harmless paint baffled Hiccup. But he knew that he was once again alone in the village. Pretty much everyone else had decorated their dragon in some way by now – it was Viking nature to make things seem scarier than they were. There was a reason some boats fled when they spotted a Viking sail.

He didn't think anyone had noticed it yet, but soon enough they would. It'd be minor teasing at first, but he could no longer bear the social isolation he'd been forced to endure most of his life. People liked him now, actually liked _him_ for who he was, and there was no way he was going to let that go.

"Or something," Astrid agreed. She kissed him on his cheek to get his attention. "Cheer up, grumpy face. I'm sure Toothless will be the scariest looking dragon of all."

"Thanks, Astrid," Hiccup said with a smile. He didn't deserve this woman, but for some reason she stuck by him. Another thing he could not lose.

* * *

That night he sneaked towards Toothless' sleeping form, brush and paint in his hand. The relatively small dragon lay on his side – the perfect position for the plan Hiccup had in mind. Sometimes it took some … creative persuasion to convince the stubborn Nightfury of something. The saddle had taken some getting used to, as did the hearth built for the dragon. Toothless preferred to keep close to Hiccup during the night. That habit had formed when Hiccup had been recovering from his amputated limb and Toothless kept watch over him, alerting Stoick whenever Hiccup needed care. That fear of losing his rider to his injuries nestled deep within Toothless, and it had taken many nights of being awoken by a large dragon body sneaking into his bed (as far as the Nightfury could be stealthy) before Hiccup could convince Toothless that sleeping at the hearth was far more comfortable for the both of them. He'd tried decorating his covers with drawings of eels to unsettle Toothless. Too bad the dragon could distinguish between fantasy and reality, and soon enough Hiccup came back one evening to find his covers destroyed and Toothless happily sleeping on his bed.

He'd tried moving his bed, but Toothless was agile and could squeeze through smaller spaces than should be possible. The only workable solution was that Hiccup sawed his bed in half, but Astrid was against that.

It took live eels surrounding his bed to get Toothless to back off. The dragon was highly offended and didn't show up for three nights in a row. When he slunk back in he settled at the hearth and that was that. He made it his own space in the house by bringing in his hunts, interesting rocks and occasionally shiny shells. When his space got too cluttered Hiccup settled down across from the Nightfury.

"Half of these things got to go," Hiccup explained. "Or you'll fill the entire house."

So he held up item after item and Toothless gave a yay or a nay.

Now, Hiccup carefully navigated around the various rocks and shells scattered around the hearth in a seemingly illogical pattern. Toothless wasn't great at drawing patterns, but whenever Hiccup disturbed a rock Toothless growled at him, so there was a sense to the madness in the Nightfury's mind.

He put down the bucket and dipped the brush into the paint. Toothless twitched and Hiccup held his breath, sure that the dragon would wake up. But the dragon only rumbled and shifted minutely.

So Hiccup set to work, using liberal amounts of paint so he wouldn't have to press hard on the scales. Only the ambient light and whatever moonlight filtered through the clouds guided him, but he used the sheen of wet paint to see what he'd covered so far. The design Astrid had drawn wasn't as complicated as Stormfly's. Else he'd wouldn't be able to pull it off like this.

Decorating the wings was out of the question, though. Those were far too sensitive. And they also lay folded against Toothless' side.

Hiccup finished with a final flourish of his brush and stepped back, regarding his work.

He'd been able to draw the pointy lines from Toothless' front paws all the way to his tail, since Toothless lay on his side. Daylight would prove how steady his brush had been, but this was more about convincing Toothless than about showing off his artwork to the outside world. The design would look amazing and fierce on his Nightfury. He'd preferred it if he'd be able to also paint Toothless' face, but that part of his anatomy was sensitive as well, so he just kept it to his belly and tail for now.

Looking at Astrid's design on the actual dragon he had an idea. He added some lines on Toothless' front and back paws. In flight he'd look even more like an arrow when seen from below, and when he walked around the lines looked like a crown. He was not exactly the king of dragons, but he was the only one of his kind around, and that made him a sort of royalty.

When he stepped back for a second time he nodded to himself. This would be enough for now, Toothless could check out his artwork when they flew over the waters tomorrow, if he didn't see it himself first on his front paws.

Hiccup was overcome with a huge yawn. He tiptoed between the scattered rocks, put the paint bucket aside, stretched luxuriously before collapsing onto his bed. He remembered to take his prosthetic off, but after that his head soon swam with the half-formed thoughts of pre-sleep.

Toothless might be miffed with him at first, but the Nightfury would soon learn the creative awesomeness of war paint.

* * *

Dragons made a lot of noises, many of them a variation upon the classic roar. They rumbled, squeaked, sighed, eeped, purred, chirred and grumbled. Even if they spoke no human language, they could make their desires known through body language and accompanying vocalizations. Since humans had theory of mind, they could imagine what the dragon wanted.

So when Hiccup got awoken by noises of distress coming from Toothless, it didn't take him long to figure out why his best friend was upset.

"Toothless?" Hiccup asked in a croaky voice. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked over to the hearth. He sprang to his feet, forgot he only had one foot and hopped over to his dragon. He sank to his knees next to Toothless' head.

The Nightfury's body was scratched in places, as if Toothless had been in a fight during the night. Certainly a possibility – dragons had disagreements – but Toothless hadn't been away during the night. There was another oddity. Only where Hiccup had drawn the red lines were there any wounds.

Toothless whined pitifully, but then lifted his back paw and Hiccup understood how the wounds came into being. In his sleep he'd been scratching at the drying paint, no doubt itching, but not annoying enough to wake him.

Guilt took hold of Hiccup's heart and he gave his best friend a big hug. "I'm so sorry, Toothless. I'll get some water and we'll wash it all off, okay, bud?"

The dragon only responded by gnawing onto his front paw, trying to get the paint off.

Hiccup had never hobbled so fast to the bucket of water reserved for fire emergencies. On his way back he took some of his clothes with him and began to wash the dragon. Toothless obligingly rolled over onto his side, his mouth never leaving his front paw as he licked and gnawed every sliver of paint off.

As Hiccup cleaned the first line he laid his hands on the guilt gripped him even tighter. Underneath the paint blisters appeared here and there. He felt unnatural bumps underneath the scales and here and there Toothless' scales were discolored.

With his prosthetic Hiccup was familiar to rashes and irritation, and it looked like he'd accidentally stumbled upon something which reacted with the Nightfury's skin. No wonder Toothless kept far away from the paint. He'd known, and Hiccup had sneaked around his back and did it anyway. The thing with sleeping on his bed had been a behavioral correction, but in hindsight Hiccup should've respected the dragon's fears, or at least taken a clue from it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Hiccup whispered as he scrubbed at the red lines. Toothless didn't listen, he was too busy gnawing at his leg. Belatedly Hiccup realized that the toxic paint now entered the dragon's system, so he grabbed hold of the leg and tugged until Toothless relented. With gentle but urgent care he cleaned the paw and did the same with the other. There weren't as many blisters on his paws as there were on his belly. Hiccup had studied his Nightfury for a long time, but he hadn't exactly been measuring the creature's skin toughness to determine which part of him would react to red paint.

Hiccup had missed breakfast and lunch by the time he was done taking care of his dragon. Every last particle of paint had been removed, but there was not much Hiccup could do about the blisters and sub dermal bumps. Those would have to heal on their own, and hopefully the discoloration would disappear as well.

"I promised I wouldn't hurt you," Hiccup said as he stepped back. He gripped the dripping wet rag tightly. "And I did. I'm sorry Toothless. I..."

He just wanted his dragon to look cool. He'd wanted to fit in. Such shallow reasons. Stupid, stupid Hiccup. He'd messed it all up again.

His best friend snorted, turned around and walked out the door. Hiccup didn't follow him.

* * *

There was much debate how intelligent dragons were. They had no structured language, a sure sign of intelligence, and they seemed to possess some form of hive-mind. The dragons had been controlled by a large dragon, after all. Some Vikings thought that dragons were as intelligent as humans, but others thought them barely above the level of a dog.

Hiccup knew that Toothless was one of the smarter dragons. He listened well to spoken commands and had quickly picked up on Hiccup's body language. He could use tools and was infinitely curious. Hiccup treated him as his best friend, albeit a different species. Rationally he knew that Toothless was a pet – an animal with a different mind, different values and an animal that had another way of looking at the world.

Toothless stayed away the rest of the day and night. Hiccup didn't dare enter the dragon hideout. Since Toothless couldn't fly on his own he probably hung out there, and Hiccup wanted to give him his space. Maybe the dragon would forgive Hiccup for injuring him.

Fishlegs had already dropped by, inquiring about the blisters on Toothless' paws and belly. Since Fishlegs had a lot of book knowledge about dragons he was one of the main caretakers of the dragon hideout. The guy had had to adjust a lot of his world view, but he knew what types of dragons ate what, who could get along with who and that knowledge was crucial in a wooden building occupied by fire-breathing lizards.

Hiccup had said something about a bad reaction to some food and Fishlegs had whipped out his book on dragons and spent some time quizzing Hiccup about what Toothless had eaten.

All day long Hiccup stayed inside the house, finishing up some projects and scrubbing every last bit of paint from the hearth. That night he barely slept and the following day he spent even more time working, this time at the forge.

He felt absolutely rotten at how he'd treated Toothless. Hindsight was great and all, but he should have known Toothless wouldn't react to certain substances if the dragon didn't already know it was bad for him. Toothless had placed his trust in Hiccup and the poor Nightfury had paid for it. And Hiccup had no idea how to fix it.

"No Toothless yet, huh," Astrid commented come nightfall. She joined him at the table in the great hall. Hiccup shoved his dinner around his plate and didn't eat.

"No," he said. He'd told her about the incident.

"I can look for him and put in a good word for you," Astrid suggested, but Hiccup shook his head.

"I'm the one who did this, I should fix it."

Astrid shifted closer to him, but Hiccup didn't look at her. "Hey," she said softly, poking him in the shoulder. "Not everything can be 'fixed' with a hammer and a forge. Sometimes things need time. I'm sure Toothless will come around. It's not like you knew and set out to hurt him."

"I should've known," Hiccup replied, aggressively sticking his fork into his fish. "Toothless told me. Not in words, but he did. And this time I can't make him a fin and get him to eventually forgive me. Although I think he only forgave me after..."

A lightning bolt of inspiration hit and Hiccup was out the door in a few seconds, leaving Astrid behind. She felt off-put by his quick departure but she recuperated and snatched Hiccup's fish.

* * *

"Toothless! Toothless!"

From the minute Hiccup walking into the dragon hideout he called for his dragon. The Nightfury didn't appear, though, so Hiccup kept on calling and looking in every stall.

In the upper right corner he finally found his dragon. Snotlout was just taking the saddle off Toothless. Snotlout's windswept hair and red cheeks told Hiccup a story.

"Oh, hey, Hiccup," Snotlout greeted. His expression was a bit sheepish, but with the grace of experience he put the saddle away and gave Toothless one last pat of gratefulness before he walked out of the stall.

"I took Toothless out for a bit, I hope you don't mind," Snotlout said. "Astrid told me that you couldn't take him out today and the little guy seemed so unhappy."

"Ah, no, I'm happy that Toothless got to fly today," Hiccup said. That might cheer Toothless up a bit, so that the Nightfury might be more receptive to what Hiccup had to say.

"Great!" Snotlout said. He lingered in the doorway and Hiccup looked over to Toothless. The dragon sat in the corner, his back turned to the two humans. He sat upright, his earflaps twisted back so he could catch every word of the conversation, but Hiccup could see no the blisters or scratches so he could gauge how well they were healing.

"Could I have a moment? Alone?" Hiccup asked. Snotlout no doubt sensed something was going on, but emotions and feelings weren't his forte. So he bowed out and left the two of them to their devices.

All dragons held a certain world view, regardless of species. No matter their intelligence level, they recognized when they had been wronged. They also knew what to do about it, but went no further than what they felt was right to take their revenge.

A summary of their morality could be written down as 'an eye for an eye'. When Hiccup had taken something from Toothless, the dragon had taken something from the human. But the dragon didn't go any further than taking an eye, figuratively speaking. In that sense they were far more intelligent than humans, who could drag out a vendetta for centuries without knowing what set the whole thing off in the first place. When the dragon took what was his the event was done and forgiven.

It was with that purpose that Hiccup rolled up his sleeves and stepped into the stall.

"I am sorry that I hurt you, Toothless," he said. "I know I can't always keep you happy and make everything right. But this time I can."

Hiccup offered his arm to the Nightfury. "I marked you, so you mark me," he said.

Slowly, Toothless turned around. Some of the blisters had popped, especially where the saddle had been, but most of them had shrunk. His scales were blacker and no longer that off-color, although Hiccup could still point out some of the discoloration. In five days, a week at most Toothless would be completely healed.

Toothless was eerily silent as he crept closer to Hiccup, keeping low to the ground. His pupils were narrow, his wings folded close to his body. The human kept his arm outstretched and the dragon approached his prey. Carefully Toothless took Hiccup's lower arm between his teeth, encompassing the arm from wrist to elbow.

For a brief moment Hiccup feared that he'd lose the use of his left arm as well, but Toothless didn't bite down. He merely kept Hiccup in his grip. A second later Hiccup yelped as heat seared his arm. The smell of burnt hair wafted from the dragon's maw and pain shot up. Hiccup tried to jerk his arm free but Toothless exerted more pressure, although his teeth never broke the skin. The heat intensified but then abated and Hiccup could finally cradle his arm to his chest.

The skin was red but whole. No blood, no bruise. Just a first degree burn, annoying but ultimately not that lasting.

Hiccup eyed the burn and then looked back at Toothless. The dragon waited for his rider's reaction and when Hiccup threw his arms wide for a hug the Nightfury took it. He nudged Hiccup and the human responded by squeezing tighter, relishing the feeling of hard scales against his sensitive skin.

"Thanks, bud," Hiccup said. Toothless crooned and they hugged for some time.

"Whatcha say, wanna go flying one more time today?" Hiccup asked. Toothless panted and wriggled his entire body, signaling in dragon language that he definitely wanted to go out and explore the world for a bit.

Later on, whenever someone asked Hiccup about war paint, Hiccup always had the same answer.

"Come on, look at him! He's a Nightfury! He's Toothless! He doesn't need war paint – he's already a warrior."


End file.
